Jewish Quest

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Jeremy Tabick discusses the relevance of the Shmita and the Yovel for the world today. 

Jeremy Tabick is the Content Manager and faculty at Hadar, where he teaches, curates, and edits Hadar’s content—both online and in print—and Project Zug courses. Jeremy is also pursuing a PhD in Talmud at JTS. He graduated from the University of Manchester (in the UK) with a Masters in Physics, and is an alumnus of Yeshivat Hadar and the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He is a member of the Steering Team of Kehilat Hadar.

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Dr Abigail Uhrman discusses holiness as being found between the polarities of separation and engagement. 

Abigail Uhrman is an assistant professor of Jewish education in the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary. She works extensively with The Davidson School’s Research Center and teaches courses in pedagogic skills, curriculum, and staff development and supervision.
Dr. Uhrman completed her PhD in 2013 at New York University, where her dissertation, Alike and Different: Parenting a Child with Special Needs in the Jewish Community, focused on parents’ experiences in Jewish day schools and educational decision-making for their children with disabilities. She graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Los Angeles with a major in history and minor in education studies in 2001.  

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Rabbi Steven Greenberg received his B.A. in philosophy from Yeshiva University and his rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. He served as a Senior Teaching Fellow at CLAL (National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership), a think tank, leadership training institute, and resource center in New York City for over twenty years from 1986 to 2010. Steve is the first openly gay Orthodox Rabbi and a founder of the Jerusalem Open House, the Holy City’s LGBTQ+ community center.  After coming out publicly in 1999 Rabbi Greenberg appeared in the film, Trembling Before G-d, a documentary about gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews. Following the film’s release in October 2001, Steve joined the filmmaker, Sandi Simcha DuBowski, in an outreach project carrying the film across the globe in over 500 post-screening dialogues as a tool for spiritual renewal, social change, and communal engagement.


Steve is presently the Founding Director of Eshel, a North American support, education, and advocacy organization for LGBTQ+ Orthodox Jews and their families.

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Rabbi Professor Rachel Adelman considers the anthropological function of skin and Leviticus' concern with boundaries. 

Rabbi Professor Rachel Adelman is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Boston’s Hebrew College. She holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is the author of The Return of the Repressed: Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer and the Pseudepigrapha (Brill 2009) and The Female Ruse: Women's Deception and Divine Sanction in the Hebrew Bible (Sheffield Phoenix, 2015). Adelman is now working on a new book, Daughters in Danger from the Hebrew Bible to Modern Midrash (forthcoming, Sheffield Phoenix Press).

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Professor Edward Greenstein discusses the incident of Nadav and Avihu and asks whether it says more about a mysterious transgression or a mysterious Deity. 

Professor Edward Greenstein is Professor Emeritus of Bible at Bar-Ilan University. He received the EMET Prize (“Israel’s Nobel”) in Humanities-Biblical Studies for 2020, and his book, Job: A New Translation (Yale University Press, 2019), won the acclaim of the American Library Association, the Association for Jewish Studies, and many others. He has been writing a commentary on Lamentations for the Jewish Publication Society.

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Rabbi Tzemah Yoreh explores the original history of the Exodus narrative; one without God as master of the story. 

Rabbi Dr. Tzemah Yoreh, leader of The City Congregation, is one of the intellectual leaders of Jewish humanism. He has been a student of the Bible since his earliest days, winning the Diaspora Division of the International Bible Contest in childhood. He attended the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he obtained his Ph.D. in biblical criticism in record time. He earned a second Ph.D. in Ancient Wisdom Literature at the University of Toronto for the joy of studying ancient. 

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Robert A. Harris is professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages at The Jewish Theological Seminary, teaching courses in biblical literature and commentary, particularly medieval Jewish biblical exegesis.

Dr. Harris is an expert in the history of medieval biblical exegesis. His most recent book is Rabbi Eliezer of Beaugency: Commentaries on Amos, Jonah (with Selections from Isaiah and Ezekiel).  TEAMS Commentary Series. Kalamazoo, MI:  Medieval Institute Publications, 2017. In 2004 he published a book in the Brown Judaic Studies series, Discerning Parallelism: A Study in Northern French Medieval Jewish Biblical Exegesis. In addition, he has published many articles and reviews in both American and Israeli journals. His dissertation (1997) was titled The Literary Hermeneutic of Rabbi Eliezer of Beaugency.  He is currently at work on a book, tentatively titled The Reinvention of Reading in the 12th Century Renaissance. 

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Rabbi Sam Blustin explores the inner meaning of sacrifices today. 

While in Rabbinical School, Rabbi Sam Blustin created Shira B’dira, a traditional egalitarian prayer community where melody is used to uplift the prayer experience. The monthly minyan gathers 25-50 20 and 30 year olds for prayer and potluck dinner, and has reached over 500 young professionals in the four years since it began.

Sam has also spent time as the Rosh Shira (head songleader) at Chizuk Amuno in Baltimore, Beth El Synagogue Center in New Rochelle, NY, and Carmel Academy. He served as the rabbinic intern for Rabbi David Schuck at Beth El in New Rochelle, and the Youth Director at Ansche Chesed.

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Rabbi Adam Zagoria-Moffat shares the innovations in the book of Vayikra and how we might read it for our times. 

Adam Zagoria-Moffet is the rabbi of St. Albans Masorti Synagogue. He was ordained from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York where he also received an MA in Jewish Thought, studying the political philosophy of Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag (Ba’al haSulam). He grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, and has lived in Minnesota, New York, and Israel before moving to the UK. He co-edited the first Hebrew/English egalitarian Sepharadi siddur and runs the independent publisher Izzun Books. He often teaches about Sepharadi halakhah and culture as well as mysticism, mythology and ethics.

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Dr Naomi Koltun-Fromm discusses the differences between the Mishkan and the Temple. 

Dr. Naomi Koltun-Fromm is Associate Professor of Religion in Haverford College. She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from Stanford. She is the author of Hermeneutics of Holiness: Ancient Jewish and Christian Notions of Sexuality and Religious Community.